BlogCalls for alcohol licensing laws to be brought in at airports

The government has issued a call for evidence from the public surrounding issues of alcohol legislation, and whether there should be a change in licensing laws to help regulate alcohol consumption at airports in England and Wales.

There is currently no regulation of licensing laws for the sale of alcohol by bar, lounges, pubs and restaurants located air-side in airports. This means that there are no rules preventing intoxicated individuals from buying more alcohol. However, individuals can face up to two years in prison or an unlimited fine for drunkenness on an aircraft.

A three-month call for evidence has been issued for members of the public to share their views on whether there should be a change in legislation laws, to prevent disruptive passengers from interrupting other passengers journeys. This is due to rising levels of crime, disorder and public safety due to some individuals drinking heavily at airports.

A Select Committee has been carrying out an analysis and critique of the Licensing Act 2003 (The Act) after being appointed by the House of Lords, in May 2016.

There was a particular interest from the Select Committee surrounding the implications of alcohol consumption in departure lounges, as this is often provided freely to customers, meaning this would make legislation difficult within lounges.

The three month call for air-side alcohol licensing is open to all here.

By employing the latest in cloud based digital software solutions, verso™ can help licensing officers improve effectiveness of their licensing application systems. It provides a flexible, cost effective platform that can be deployed rapidly and used as a standalone system or via proven integration with existing software. verso™ is designed to rapidly process applications and ensure data is complete, validated and that charges are applied during check-out.

If you have an interest in improving efficiency within the alcohol licensing or temporary event notice (TEN’s) processes and would like to know more about how form automation and answer verification can help to decrease the administration overhead, then get in contact with our alcohol licensing specialist Nigel Lamb.